Characterization of cristobalite in ash and dome rock from the Soufriere Hills volcano, Montserrat： Implications for respiratory health hazards

A link between the inhalation of respirable silicas （SiO2） and respiratory diseases such as silicosis is widely recognized. Ash from dome collapse eruptions on Montserrat has been found to contain high levels （〉20%） of silicas in the form of cristobalite, tridymite, quartz and/or amorphous silica. The toxicity of these silica polymorphs varies widely. Cristobalite and quartz （tridymite less well established） are viewed as carcinogenic to humans whereas amorphous silica generally shows a reduced biological response. In assessing the potential health effects of volcanic ash particulates it is vital to determine the types and concentration of silicas as well as their size （respirable fraction）, shape and surface properties. The aim of this study is to develop methods to assess potentially toxic respirable airborne silicas in the dome collapse ash （applicable to a range of ash types） and to develop a model to predict the levels and types of respirable silicas from future eruptions. The model is being developed by comparing dome rock with related ash from a series of previous eruption events. Mineralogical assessment using conventional scanning X-ray diffraction （XRD） was hampered by difficulties in differentiating characteristic peaks for cristobalite and tridymite in complex multi-component ash samples （containing high levels of plagioclase）. These difficulties have been largely overcome using an Enraf-Nonius PDS120 diffractometer with curved （120 degrees 20） position sensitive detector （PSD）. The determination of size, shape and elemental characteristics of ash particulate and dome rock samples has been carried out using automated analytical scanning electron microscopy. The quantification of mineral proportions using PSD-XRD was highly successful with an accuracy of 1 to 2 wt%. However, the determination of phase proportions using automated analytical SEM was problematic due to scattering effects and the multiphase nature of many of the particles.     

Attenuation of aqueous metal transport at two natural acid rock drainage occurrences in the Yukon Territory, Canada

Naturally acidic drainage associated with pyritic black shale has been observed in many locations in the Yukon Territory. While not necessarily linked to known mineral deposits, most of these natural acid rock drainage occurrences show elevated dissolved concentrations of trace elements, especially zinc, nickel, copper, cadmium and arsenic. Based on field observations, microbial investigation, chemical analyses and geochemical modeling, the fate and transport of potentially deleterious elements at two natural acid drainage occurrences with slightly different settings are examined. The Macintosh Creek is a small, acidic stream （pH 2.98-3.40）, 2 km long, located in the Macmillan Pass area of east-central Yukon amidst known sedimentary exhalative massive sulfide mineralization but remains undisturbed by exploration activities. Its trace metal content is apparently derived from groundwater discharges, which gave as much as 5.0, 2.5, 0.7, 0.13 and 0.03 mg/L ofZn, Ni, Cu and As, respectively. Interaction and sorption reactions with algal mats, biofilms and iron oxyhydroxides appear to be the dominant mechanisms attenuating aqueous contaminant transport along the stream. Cryogenic precipitation further consolidates the ferricrete formation and reduces the mobility of the sorbed metals. The tributaries of the Engineering Creek along the Dempster Highway in northern Yukon drain through a series of dolomite, phyllite, argillite, limestone, black shale, sandstone and conglomerate with no known concentration of mineralization. In this area, the water chemistry fully reflects the local geology with acidic streams invariably associated with black shale occurrences. Groundwater seeps in the headwaters area of the km-180 Creek completely enclosed in black shale gave pH 3.0 and as much as 148, 39, 2.9 and 9.1 mg/L of Zn, Ni, Cu and As, respectively. Sorption with iron oxyhydroxide and organic matter appear to dominate the attenuation of contaminant transport along the stream. However, once entered into carbonate-dominated terrains, secondary carbonate minerals exercise additional geochemical control on the local water chemistry as a result of neutralization.     

Hydrogeochemical controls on surface and groundwater chemistry in naturally acidic, porphyry-related mineralized areas, southern Rocky Mountains

In southern Rocky Mountains, catchments characterized by acidic, metalliferous waters that are relatively unaffected by human activity usually occur within areas that have active or historical mining activity. The US Geological Survey has utilized these mineralized but unmined catchments to constrain geochemical processes that control the surface- and ground-water chemistry associated with near surface acid weathering as well as to estimate premining conditions. Study areas include the upper Animas River watershed, Lake City, Mt. Emmons, and Montezuma in Colorado and Questa in New Mexico. Although host-rock lithologies range from Precambrian gneisses to Cretaceous sedimentary units to Tertiary volcanic complexes, mineralization is Tertiary in age and associated with intermediate to felsic composition, porphyritic plutons. Pyrite is ubiquitous. Variability of metal concentrations in water is caused by two main factors： mineralogy and hydrology. Parameters that potentially affect water chemistry include： host-rock lithology, intensity of hydrothermal alteration, sulfide mineralogy and chemistry, gangue mineralogy, length of flow path, precipitation, evaporation, and redox conditions. Springs and headwater streams have pH values as low as 2.5, sulfate up to 3700 mg/L and high dissolved metal concentrations （for example： Al up to 170 mg/L; Fe up to 250 mg/L; Cu up to 3.5 mg/L and Zn up to 14 mg/L）. With the exception of evaporative waters, the lowest pH values and highest Fe and Al concentrations occur in water draining the most intense hydrothermally altered areas consisting of the mineral assemblage quartz-sericite-pyrite. Stream beds tend to be coated with iron floc, and some reaches are underlain by ferricrete. When iron-rich ground water interacts with oxygenated waters in the stream or hyporheic zone, ferrous iron is oxidized to ferric iron, which is less soluble, leading to the precipitation of iron oxyhydroxides.     

Naturally acidic and metalliferous waters at unmined volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in the Bonnifield mining district, Alaska Range, east-central Alaska

The Bonnifield district hosts 26 tmmined volcanogenic massive sulfide （VMS） occurrences. Environmental geochemical samples of water and stream sediment were collected at several occurrences, concentrating on the two best-exposed and largest deposits, Red Mountain （RM） and Sheep Creek （SC）. Limited samples were also collected at the poorly exposed WTF deposit. The deposits are Late Devonian to Early Mississippian, and are hosted by felsic metavolcanic and carbonaceous schist members of the Totatlanika Schist or Keevy Peak Fm. Spring and stream waters at RM and SC have pH values commonly 〈3.5 （as low as 2.4 at RM and 2.5 at SC）, high conductivity （up to 11000 μS/cm）, and very high （Is to 100s mg/L） dissolved contents of Al, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Ni, and Pb. Waters at RM are characterized by extremely high REE contents （summed REE median 3200 μg/L, n=33）. At both RM and SC, pyrite oxidation and dissolution produce low pH waters that interact with and dissolve bedrock minerals, resulting in acidic, metal-laden, naturally degraded streams that are mostly devoid of aquatic life. Ferricrete is common. In contrast, WTF barely produces a surficial environmental footprint, mostly due to topography and relief. RM and SC are well exposed in the areas of relatively high relief, and both exhibit extensive areas of quartz-sericite-pyrite-alteration. While WTF shares many of the same deposit-and alteration characteristics, it is concealed by tundra in a large, nearly flat area. Surface water at WTF is absent and outcrops are sparse. Even though WTF is roughly the same size as Red Mountain （both around 3 million tonnes） and has similar base- and precious-metal grades, the surficial geochemical manifestation of WTF is minimal. However, exposure through mining of the altered, mineralized rock at WTF potentially could initiate the same processes of pyrite oxidation, acid generation, and mineral dissolution that are observed naturally at RM and SC.     

Quantification of the risk associated with high levels of mercury pollution at Temirtau, Kazakhstan

This research aims to establish the risks of hurnan exposure to modeling approach. The study site was located on the River Nura 1990s, an acetaldehyde production plant located in the industrial high environmental mercury levels, based on a quantitative risk in central Kazakhstan. From the 1950s until its closure in the mid city of Temirtau released mercury-containing wastewater into the river. River sediments are highly contaminated with mercury up to a distance of 25 km and beyond. In addition, a local power station released an estimated 6 million tonnes of fly-ash into the water and the mercury has become quite tightly associated with the ash deposits. River water, fish and agricultural land in the floodplain are also contaminated with mercury, yet the risks posed to the local population have not been evaluated to date. In June and July 2005, we took samples of soil, interior and exterior dust, drinking water, and food from individual households, communal areas and markets. Additionally, water and sediment samples and fish were taken from the river. Interviews were conducted with householders to establish their age and body weight, general living conditions and sources of irrigation and drinking water. A food frequency questionnaire （FFQ） was designed to investigate the frequencies of consumption of several common regional food items, including fish from the fiver and/or local market. Human hair samples were also collected to estimate the mercury bioburden and to enable the validity of the modeling approach to be established. The paper expands on the main pathways of contamination and looks at linkages between exposure pathways and mercury concentrations found in human hair. Uncertainties inherent in risk analysis as well as their influence on the relative importance of different exposure routes are also discussed.     

Changes to cadmium associations in canal sediments on drying and oxidation

The mainly 19th Century canal system in the UK, largely managed by British Waterways, has been increasingly brought back into operation over the last few decades, and is now widely used for both leisure, and, increasingly, transport. Both initial and routine dredging of the canal sediment is carried out and these sediments are generally disposed of to land. Because many of the canals were connected with primary industries, their sediments can locally be significantly contaminated with heavy metals, and the behaviour of these metals under differing redox conditions, when introduced into a new environment （i.e., on land） is of importance for environmental risk-assessment purposes. Canal sediments are often rich in sulfidic mineral phases, and we have attempted to quantify the influence of these sulfidic phases on the release and retention of metals in dredged canal sediments, using a combination of traditional chemical techniques （e.g. sequential extraction） and X-ray absorption spectroscopy （XAS）. Sediment samples have been collected from urban fresh-water canals, one in the British Midlands and one in Northern France. It appears from XAS that Cd is largely associated with oxygen in air-dried sediment, and with sulphur in vacuum-dried sediment.     

Petrogenesis and geotectonic setting of the PanAfrican basement rocks in Bamenda Massif, Obudu Plateau, southeastern Nigeria： Evidence from trace element geochemistry

1 IntroductionThe study area is part of the Obudu Plateau,which forms part of the Precambrian Pan-African tec-tonothermal belt, lying between the West African Cra-ton and the Gabon-Congo Craton ( Fig. 1). It isbounded by the Benue Trough, in the NE-SW axi…     

The chromite deposits associated with ophiolite complexes, Southeastern Desert, Egypt： Petrological and geochemical characteristics and mineralization

1 Introduction The association of massive Fe-Ni-Cu sulfides andchromite is a very unusual feature of podiformchromitites occurring in mantle tectonites of ophioliticcomplexes. It has only been described in theSoutheastern Desert, Egypt, where sulfides a…     

探地雷达(GPR)在海南岛东北部海岸带调查中的应用 *

对海南岛东北部海岸带调查采用了探地雷达(GPR)研究海岸带沙体的结构、展布和沉积序列,取得了很好的效果。文章通过和有限的露头资料对比以及对反射波形态、结构的研究,确定了海滩脊、海岸沙丘的反射特征以及潜水面的位置。雷达图像显示五龙港古海滩脊由亚水平、不连续、高振幅和透镜状反射波组成;木兰头海岸沙丘已受到人类活动的扰动,短的、陡倾斜反射可能代表未受扰动的海岸风成沙的前积层。研究表明探地雷达是一种可靠、快速和经济的地球物理方法,在砂砾质海岸可产生高质量、高分辨率和连续的反射剖面,值得加以推广。     

美国地质调查局激光雷达应用新进展

随着激光雷达(Light detection and ranging,Lidar)技术的成熟,美国地质调查局(U.S.Geo-logical Survey,USGS)在这个方向开展了许多应用研究。科学家们正在发展表达、使用高分辨率Lidar数据的新型技术;同时,为方便公众获取相应信息,数据及提取信息的发布手段也在研究之中。以下通过几个实例做一简要介绍。1典型研究1.1数据分发建立国家地图集(National Map)的一个目标是向公众发布基础数字地理信息。该地图集的高程部分是通过USGS地球观测系统(EROS)数据中心的国家高程数据集(National ElevationDataset,NED)维护的。NED提供3种…